


And he got to call her his wife

by raktajinos



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Arranged Marriage - Spouses Intend to Stay Platonic But Get Feelings, Arranged Royal Marriage, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, F/M, Flirting, M'Baku is fiiiiiineeee, Pining, Queen Shuri (Marvel), Scientist Shuri (Marvel), Shuri (Marvel) Lives, The Blip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 10:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20044828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raktajinos/pseuds/raktajinos
Summary: It had been exactly two months, seven days, ten hours, and thirty-three minutes, since he married Queen Shuri, was crowned King of Wakanda, and made a lifelong oath to Queen and country. And it had been exactly four weeks, 3 days, 10 hours, and thirty-four minutes since he realized he was in love with her.





	And he got to call her his wife

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avocadomoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avocadomoon/gifts).

> Takes place during The Blip and Shuri is older than in canon. 
> 
> I was surprised at how much I enjoyed writing this pairing (as evidence by the nine different stories I started before I settled on this one) - I'm sort of in love with them now. I hope you enjoy :)

He pressed his hand firmly against the keypad next to the door, the advanced computer tracing his bio-imprint to confirm his identity, his photo popping up on the little screen as confirmation, the hightech door to her lab opening with a whoosh. He got distracted by the little title that was written under his photo, “M’Baku, King of Wakanda”, staring at it. It was surreal and he wasn’t sure if he would ever adjust to the title, or the position for that matter. 

It had been exactly two months, seven days, ten hours, and thirty-three minutes, since he married Queen Shuri, was crowned King of Wakanda, and made a lifelong oath to Queen and country, in a beautiful ceremony with a huge party that took over the city and lasted far into the night. And it had been exactly four weeks, 3 days, 10 hours, and thirty-four minutes since he realized he was in love with her. 

Had he realized this before the wedding, he would have mentioned it to her, she deserved to know. But that’s not the kharmic joke the universe wanted to play on him, preferring for him to realize four weeks into their marriage that he was in love with her and had been in love with her for some time now. 

He was royally screwed, literally. 

He recognized the absurdity of this as well as the inconvenient timing of it all. Shuri had proposed to him not out of love, but out of logic and obligation. Wakanda needed a King and she wanted him, her trusted friend, to stand by her side. He was at first confused - yes, they’d become closer over the past few years, working together to bring their country back together after what Thanos did to the world, but they’d become allies, and at best, they were friends…but there had never been any real attraction there, or so he thought. Which was part of her argument as to why they would work. She said Wakanda needed a Queen and a King and a future to hope for and that their friendship would be best suited for the job; that she could depend on him to do the best for their people and to lead with kindness.

It was that last argument that got him, that she trusted him to be a good King, and so he had agreed. He also enjoyed spending time with her, they were friends after all, so it wasn’t with a heavy-heart that he agreed to spending the rest of his life with her. 

The late hour of the evening had all but guaranteed that the expansive lab would be empty, unless some poor graduate student had insisted on staying to help Shuri with whatever project they were working on. Since becoming Queen, Shuri had wanted to ensure that Wakanda continued to develop its own technology as well as exploring ways to help the rest of the planet, so she set up an international graduate research institute that focused on creating circular technologies that worked with nature instead of in opposition to it. To say the school had been a success was an understatement and they were currently working on building an affiliate school in the Canadian north, working alongside the Indigenous communities there who shared that same value system.

Having worked with her professionally over the past few years, his respect for her had only grown as she took to the role of Queen with ease, her diplomatic skills being much needed in the post-Thanos world. The world had needed bold visionary voices in its leadership, and they had all lucked out with Shuri. She was remarkable. 

And he got to call her his wife. 

If he had respect for her before, it was nothing compared to the respect he had for her now, seeing the intimate side of her life, how hard she worked, the behind-the-scenes diplomacy and emotional labour that she put into her every day. The woman never stopped working, up before the sun and then up late in her lab on the nights when she could get a spare hour - or three - to herself. He was glad she took some time to relax, some time to herself, she deserved that. 

He found Shuri working at her favourite workstation, hunched over, large headphones buried in her hair, head bopping along to the music as she focused on the small detail work in front of her. She didn’t hear him enter the lab and hadn’t seen him yet, so he took a moment to appreciate the sight before him. 

She was beautiful, he always recognized that she was, but with new eyes he was able to appreciate just how beautiful she was. She’d grown into a curvaceous woman, with nice wide hips and a softness to her that M’Baku found particularly attractive; the kind of softness he just wanted to sink into, perfect for hugs and…other activities. There was a gold radiance to her dark skin and she looked every bit the African Queen that she was. Even now, her natural hair unstyled, pulled back by her headphones, some sort of magnifying goggles on her face, and her body clothed in an oversized Stark Industries sweater and a pair of SHIELD sweatpants. He thought she looked stunning. 

He cleared his throat and made a dramatic waving gesture to get her attention. She looked up at the movement, smiling when she saw him and taking off her headphones. 

“Husband!” she greeted with a grin. She had thought it hilarious to call him that in private and he liked to hear her laugh. 

“Wife!” he grinned in return

“What brings you down to my lair this evening?” she asked, overtly trying to see what he was carrying. 

He rolled his eyes, setting the tray down on her work station, taking care to ensure that anything looking overly electrical or delicate was moved and lifted the lid off the tray revealing two steaming cups and a bowl. 

She sighed, smelling the air, “a hot toddy and some cheese crisps, how did you know?” 

“Ah, Your Highness, we may only be married a few weeks, but I believe you married me because I knew you so well already, including your rather unfortunate appreciation for British snacks,” he said, leaning against her desk, taking the second cup for himself. 

“What can I say, the Colonizers had some tasty snacks annnnd I’m pretty sure I married you for the eye candy,” she teased, giving him a dramatic one-over

“Then Her Majesty is most welcome to look at her candy, but she should know that candy is meant to be tasted,” he said, voice dropping at the last word. 

Their eyes locked and for a second he thought he could see a flush rise up her neck, but it disappeared as quickly as it arrived. 

“What are you working on?” he asked, breaking the weird tension. 

Her eyes lit up, “oh! A few different things actually, the suit of course,” she said gesturing to the mess of fabric and vibrainum on her desk, “and, oh, this here,” she said, pointing to a complex-looking sphere with a monitor hooked up to it, “is a new water desalinization technology one of our students from Guatemala is developing. It needs recalibrating every 10 hours so I volunteered for tonight. The technology is looking quite promising really, great for smaller remote communities…once we stabilize the recalibration issue of course.” 

“Wow, that’s remarkable,” M’Baku commented, while he never had an aptitude for science - literature and theatre had always been his calling - he had a deep appreciation for it. 

“And this,” she said, walking him over to a series of gooey wires suspended in a yellow liquid, “is an older project of mine I have…somewhat reluctantly handed over to a graduate team. It needs to get done, and I don’t have the time.”

“A common issue for you,”

She rolled her eyes and sighed, “don’t I know it,” 

“What is it for?” 

“Oh! It’s wonderful really, I’m sad its not mine-mine anymore, but it’ll make so many people’s lives better if we can make it work. Basically, its artificially-created veins…I got the idea from Barnes actually; all the synthetic wiring in his body acting in place of veins. I thought there must be a way to make a bio version of that…and well, this is where we are,” 

“That’s very impressive, extremely disgusting, but impressive,” he said, making a face at the box of goo. 

“Yes,” she chuckled, “a lot of bio wet ware work is disgusting. I won’t take you into the back room then,”

“Oh, the back room. Sounds…salacious,” he teased

She laughed, “you won’t like it back there,”

“How do you know,” 

“I know you pretty well too,” she said, a suggestive tone in her voice

“You don’t know all of me…backroom me…” he said, leaning in ever-so-slightly, “…maybe I have a different understanding of…wet…”

The air shifted and he became aware of what he was doing….flirting with her. This wasn’t some woman he was interested in and he wasn’t flirting for some quickie hookup in the backroom - well, he’d would definitely be up to the latter, but he’d rather stay away from that room because it did sound disgusting and he’d fantasized about taking her against pretty much every surface in the lab, first up would be her desk. 

He caught himself, what the hell was he doing? He was actually flirting with her, stepping just outside the very clear line of friendship into…whatever the hell this was. While he was in love with her, he recognized that their arrangement was for friendship and he would never betray that, or her, and would serve his people dutifully. He also couldn’t be entertaining active sexual fantasies with her standing next to him; those were for in private later. 

She lifted her gaze to stare at him, their eyes locking, the silence stretching awkwardly with the unacknowledged suggestion of heat between them. She licked her lips and his eyes darted down to follow the movement of her tongue. 

“Did you want to try it on?” she finally said, breaking the silence and shifting her gaze back to her work. 

“What?” he replied, still very confused as to what just happened. 

“The suit,” she said, not looking at him, busying herself with random wires on the table. 

“Umm, sure,” 

He walked over to the reflective platform, standing on the footprint shapes glowing on the ground, trying not to follow Shuri’s movements around the lab, but failing. Her usual elegance was shaken, a distracted nervousness evident in her stride that belied the normal confidence with which she moved through her lab. 

She walked over to him, in her hands carrying five holographic triangles about the size of an apricot. “It’s a new design I’ve been working on,” she explained at his intrigued expression. 

“I would have had it done ages ago except -”

“Been busy leading a country,” he finished for her, 

“Yeah,” she replied, smiling a little before pausing awkwardly. 

“What?” 

“I um, I need you to take your shirt off. It’s still in the prototype stage and I’ve not figured out how to make it work over different fabrics yet. Your pants are fine, I just wouldn’t want to accidentally strangle you with your own shirt - the vibranium contracts when you mix it with an unstable atomic base which I’ve been working on and……” she stopped, seeming to realize she’d been rambling, “…it’s not going to strangle you, but just in case,” 

He chuckled and complied, taking his shirt off, privately thinking her tech rambling was adorable - a nice counter to the authority and precision with which she normally spoke; it was nice to see her get excited and nerdy about the thing she was most passionate about.

Shuri moved to stand in front of him, placing a triangle on the left side of his chest near his shoulder, pushing the cool metal firmly into his skin so it adhered. He became immediately aware of the intimacy of their position, the fact that he was half naked and that she was touching him. 

“You know I can take some of that work for you - no, not the tech stuff, I’ll just stay your model for that,” he offered, winking at her, earning him a light chuckle. “Isn’t that my job, to share some of your burdens and responsibilities,” 

She moved to his side, positioning another triangle on his back, directly mirroring the positioning of the one on his chest. 

“That’s true…” she trailed, distracted by checking the alignment of the triangles. Apparently satisfied with their placement, she pushed the second one firmly into his skin, adhering it. 

“Like the agricultural improvements and trade negotiations with North America, you know resource management and trade is where I do best. Don’t tell me I need to remind you of the Pan-Asia treaty I saved our asses on,” he teased

“You didn’t save our asses,” she moved to the other side of his back, trailing fingers across his skin to ensure alignment of the next triangle. He fought the urge to shudder at her touch, but couldn’t control the goosebumps on his forearms, instead hoping she couldn’t see them from her position behind him. 

He snorted, “oh please, I completely saved that queenly ass of yours. The Tibetan ambassador was on the verge of leaving until my dashing intervention,” 

It was her turn to laugh, “alright fun, your dashing heroism saved that treaty and my ass,” and she pushed the third triangle to adhere to his skin.

“Thank you, so hard to get a little appreciation around here, despite how saveable the ass was,” he teased, 

“If I remember correctly, there were several women eager to show their…appreciation for your dashing intervention,” 

He grinned at the memory, yes, they had been very eager. “Why, your highness, if I didn’t know better I would say you sound jealous,”

She didn’t reply, instead placing her fingers at the top of his spine and running them all the way down his back until they landed at the dip in his lower back. He bit his tongue to stop the moan from escaping, but there was no way she didn’t see the physical shake his body made at her touch, glad he was wearing loose fitting pants or she’d be learning a whole lot more about his true feelings. 

“It seems to be a theme, apparently you’ve got yourself a bit of a global following…I believe the gossip sites are calling you the Wakanda Hunk,” her fingers placed the fourth triangle at the base of his spine, her other hand wrapping around his hip as she aligned the placement. 

He laughed loudly at that, “I had no idea, what an honour for you then to be married to someone so famous,” he teased. 

“Oh, that’s also a theme of your fanclub, that I’m a very lucky woman…”she trailed off, pushing the triangle to adhere, her hands lingering on his lower back. 

And then something clicked for M’Baku….she was testing the waters, testing him. There was no way this suit required this much intimate contact for whomever tried it on, he’d just been so focused on his own reactions he never considered the scenario was of her design. 

She wanted him.  
Well, that was new.  
That changed everything. 

“Lucky in what way?” he hedged, his voice lower. She trailed her hand along his hip as she moved to stand in front of him, her other hand coming to rest on his chest, the last triangle in hand. He was a bit embarrassed it took him so long to recognize this for what it was. 

“Well, one tweet that went viral said I was lucky because I had ‘a year-round pass on the Wakanda Hunk ride’” her eyes briefly flicked up to his before snapping back down to the triangle she was lining up. 

He noted the flush in her cheeks and the tension in her shoulders; she was giving them both plausible deniability here, but they were toeing even closer to that deniability evaporating. She pushed the last triangle into his skin, letting her hands remain, lingering on his chest.

“I didn’t realize that was a ride you were interested in trying out,” he hedged. 

She let her hands drift down his torso, nails scraping lightly over his abdominal muscles, one hand splaying across the skin there, the other resting on the waistband of his pants, fingertips dipping below the waistband. 

Yup, deniability was gone now. This was happening, M’Baku thought to himself. 

Her eyes snapped up to meet his gaze, staring him head-on, “I solved the fabric problem three months ago….and I got it down to one triangle…and its worn as a ring” she said, lifting her right hand, the one not on his pants, and showing him the small triangle ring on her thumb that he’d seen numerous times. 

He just stared at her, dumbfounded and impressed by her ingenuity - in both the seduction and her technology, not really believing what was happening. 

“The way you look at me, I thought maybe….” She started, uncertainty creeping into her expression. 

His arms, which he’d forced to stay still the entire time, snapped into action, pulling her to him, one hand burying itself in her hair as he kissed her, the other on her hip. She sighed and relaxed into the kiss, her one arm wrapping around his neck, the other keeping a grip on his waistband, fingers playing with the buckle of his belt. He groaned into her mouth, tasking a hint of the whiskey from earlier. 

“I think they offer day passes,” he said, his 

“I was thinking of maybe a lifetime pass?” she replied. 

He groaned, his other hand sliding down her body to join his other hand in cupping her ass and pulling her closer to him so she could feel him hard against her thigh. 

“I think I might need a frequent rider card,” she teased, voice thick with arousal, her hands finally undoing the buckle of his belt. 

He moaned and pulled her in for a kiss again; his wife.


End file.
